The history of painting would not be so rich without the contribution of troubled artists – influenced or inspired whether by their state of depression, whether by more intense psychic conditions.
We will cover a selection of artists whose creativity and masterpieces have been nourished by their mental health and syndromes. Take a moment to observe and feel their creations – their depth, sensibility and emotional distress.
FRANCISCO GOYA(1746-1828)
Last of the Old Masters and first of the moderns, Francisco Goya remains the most important Spanish artist of his era.
In late 1792, an undiagnosed mysterious illness left him deaf with dizziness and headaches. This would change the course of his life toward a darker path. His physical condition started turning into mental syndromes when Napoleon Bonaparte’s army invaded Spain for the start of the Peninsular War (1808-1814). Francisco Goya, tending toward isolation and depression, suffered from delirium and hallucinations – probably materialized by his painting “Saturn Devouring his Son” (1819-1823), one of his 14 Black Paintings directly painted onto his house walls.
Francisco Goya grew old as an anxious, lonely and fearful man whose paintings showed evidence of a passionate instability, a fascination for depicting the gravity of human melancholy and sufferings. His paintings demonstrate a broken utopia, the deception toward a brutal and barbarous mankind – his emotions being emphasized by the loss of his senses resulting in a fearful state of mind.
GEORGIA O’KEEFFE(1887-1986)
Pioneer of the struggle for women’s recognition in the American art establishment, Georgia O’Keeffe grew to become the first female American modernist and one of the most important figures of the 20th century. Not only on canvas, she sought independence all through her life – using style to set herself apart. Her leitmotiv reposed on wanting to be more than was expected of women. To dress in black and white was more of a practical choice than a statement – if she had to choose her clothes among colorful garments, she would lose time she could have dedicated to her art. Influenced by Charlotte Perkins Gilman’ book “The Dress of Women”, she embraced a masculine style of dress – a way to oppose herself against the social norms of the time.
More than a successful artist, she had turned into an icon – attracting renowned photographers among which Cecil Beaton, Andy Warhol, Ansel Adams and […] Alfred Stieglitz. If she was the muse of the latter, he was the love of her life. Alfred Stieglitz settled her first major New York City exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum and strongly contributed to her recognition. He produced a series of 350 photographs of her, shaping and strengthening her image in America. Though, Georgia O’Keeffe insisted in conserving her independence; kept her maiden name and travelled frequently alone to New Mexico. Their passionate and romantic marriage eventually ended because of Alfred Stieglitz tendency to cheat on her and defy her trust.
Georgia O’Keeffe’s flowers paintings were often assimilated with sexual connotations, a vision she has always protested. It was purely the fruit of her senses and her will to represent the beauty of flowers – the large scale of her paintings aiming to attract people’s interest. Her art was characterized by the outlines that were defining the regions of her compositions and dividing them in dynamic zones of color. She depicted not only flowers, but also landscapes with a tendency to abstraction, giving a unique identity to the finale results.
Though her work evolved along her personal development which was suddenly interrupted in 1932 when she could not complete the mural at Radio City Music Hall. Struck by an intense depression and devouring anxiety, she stopped her artistic activities for 2 years while resting at the Doctors Hospital in New York City.
Once freed from her depression, she felt reborn – experiencing a whole lot of negative energies such as sadness, despair and fear had taught her to embrace life even further once cured.
MARK ROTHKO(1903-1970)
Leading figure to the New York abstractionist scene, Mark Rothko stood out with his compositions incorporating influences of Greek narratives and nourished by the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche.
Mark Rothko’s life took a tragic turn from his early childhood – after leaving Russia with his family for Portland due to the hostility that had arisen toward Zionist Jews, his father passed away. This sounded the official end of his childhood, being forced to work with his siblings at an early age to survive financially. No time to embrace the naïve and innocent world from his child’ eyes, the real work had knocked brutally at his door.
Naturally his early life was rhythmed by long periods of depression and worsened by a bipolar condition. His outstanding talent was led by his mental state, leading him to vary from one style to another – starting with Expressionism to finish with the “multi-forms” style. The emotional connection between Mark Rothko and his paintings can be felt through his choice of colors, at times vibrant and warm, nay shady and dark or nuanced with both.
Sadly, overtime Mark Rothko went haywire, being overpowered by his deepening will to die. In 1970, dressed in long johns and socks, he severed his right arm’s artery with a razor and joined the stars.
EDVARD MUNCH(1863-1944)
Master of the Expressionist movement, Edvard Munch is remembered for his disturbing compositions filled with despair and anguish.
His art was nourished by his mental breakdown – to which alcoholism contributed largely – and evolved along the symptoms. “The Scream” (1893) and “Anxiety” (1894) were inspired by his hallucinations and agoraphobia. Edvard Munch was conscious of the valuable input of his depression and showed no intention of curing it – his depression established the artist residing in him.
“My fear of life is necessary to me, as is my illness. Without anxiety and illness, I am a ship without a rudder… my sufferings are part of my self and my art. They are indistinguishable from me, and their destruction would destroy my art”.
The context of his life did not help either to improve his state of mind – having lived during both atrocious World Wars and being directly impacted by the second when, in 1937, the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler confiscated his work for his “Degenerate Art” exhibition.
Edvard Munch may have surely not lived happy, though he managed to transform his weakness into an artistic strength that gave him the will to live and create – setting in stone his contribution to the world long and rich history of art.
LOUIS WAIN(1860-1939)
Who guessed that depicting cats could hide deep sufferings?! Louis Wain reached recognition for his feline forms and anthropomorphic representations of cats which he started to create at first to amuse his beloved wife. Unfortunately, soon after their marriage, a cancer took her away from him. It seems to have been the trigger of his woes.
Louis Wain contracted schizophrenia at the age of 57. Because of his symptoms and the difficulty to treat such mental illness at the time, he entered a psychiatric institution, the Napsbury Hospital, where he would stay for the rest of his life.
His smiling, festive and cuddly cats took the shape of psychedelic kittens while at the hospital – his mental condition fracturing the distinction between the real and the psychic. His figures became more geometric and colorful, moving gradually toward more abstraction.
If depression and distress overcontrolled him following his love’s death – his creations were not expressing signs of dispiritedness – only those aware of his ongoing condition could tell they were accompanying the progression of his delusional state.
NICOLAS DE STAËL(1914-1955)
Difficult not to make a parallel between Nicolas de Staël’s life and the one of Mark Rothko – both sharing quite a similar introduction to life and the same conclusion. Indeed, after seeking exile in Poland from the Russian Revolution in 1919, his parents died in 1921. Nicolas de Staël was only 7 years old when he became an orphan – his life being torn apart right from its commencement. A trauma that would follow him like his shadow all along his existence.
Nonetheless, Nicolas de Staël grew to sit among Russia’s most prominent artists of the 20th century’s first half. He redefined the rules of classic landscape painting, developing it into a highly abstract form of art. His creations were characterized by his obsession of colors – maybe a way to seek those he could not find in his heart – and the application of a thick impasto. He nourished his art with the influence of masters such as Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt, George Braque, Henri Matisse and Paul Cézanne. Even though he was attached to the independence of his style, there was evidence of common grounds with the American Abstract Expressionist movement and the French Tachisme. His art was in constant evolution; the dark colors of his first creations gave way to exalted colors in his last years.
Nicolas de Staël was an eternal unsatisfied who created as much as he destroyed. In 15 years he produced more than a thousand paintings and surely threw away as many. He painted with passion and intensity, throwing on canvas his troubled emotions.
His depressive state kept growing over the years, nourished by the trauma of his childhood and the rejection of an audience that would recognize his talent too late. His depression led him to Antibes, in the South of France, to satisfy his need of isolation. This is where on March 16th 1955, Nicolas de Staël chose to end his torments by jumping from his apartment, located on the 11th floor. In a pulsion, a handful of seconds, the artist had given up on living – as he tended to destroy his creations, he chose this time to act on the creator. Some believe he committed suicide following an unsuccessful meeting with an art critic, some believe he could not handle anymore the rejection from Jeanne Mathieu, a woman he was deeply in love with since the summer 1953 – both scenarios showing his intense and passionate fear of emotional and artistic turndown.
RICHARD DADD(1817-1886)
Better not be mislead by the genius of Richard Dadd’s compositions – his Oriental and supernatural scenes and their obsessively miniscule details. If his painting “The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke” (1855-64) inspired a song to the iconic Queen band in the 1970s, his macabre life could have inspired thriller and fiction’ writers.
It all started in July 1843 when accompanying his Patron on a Middle East grand tour – while on a boat over the Nile in Egypt, Richard Dadd’s first psychotic episode happened. Convinced to have been taken hostage by the ancient Egyptian god Osiris, he started acting weirdly, trashing around wildly. It was time for him to go back to his home country to reconnect with his sanity. Though, on the way back, while in Italy, he exposed his wish to seek out and attack the Pope – a plan he finally did not execute. Unfortunately, it just rang the beginning of much darker upcoming events.
When finally back in the United Kingdom, Richard Dadd’s behavior worsened – less approachable, more difficult to have a conversation with, applying unusual diet of only ale and eggs – it did not take long for the concerned Dr. Alexander Sutherland to suggest a visit to an asylum. In vain, Richard’s father categorically refused to see his son in a psychiatric institution, if only he had known what was upcoming!
Since his return, Osiris had been whispering in his ears about his surrounding; convincing him that his father was an imposter – possessed with demons. Richard Dadd believed “black devils” were crawling over his father and his saliva, he had to put an end to it. On August 28th 1843, Richard Dadd’s pre-arranged a meeting with his father on the Cobham local park to kill him – this time thoughts were followed by actions, he stabbed him and slashed his throat. To escape from local authorities, Richard Dadd fled to France where he had the intention to carry on his murdering journey. It did not take long for him to be arrested, after attempting to kill a tourist with a razor with the explanation that the stars had given him the order to do so. He was found with a list of people “who had to die” among which the Emperor of Austria Ferdinand I.
Extradited in the United Kingdom to face the court, Richard Dadd did not go to jail. The recent McNaghten rules had established the difference between a “conscious” murder and a murder influenced by a state of insanity. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, he avoided the death penalty and was committed for the rest of his life into a psychiatric hospital – at first in South London’ Bethlem Hospital and then in Reading’ Broadmon Hospital, where he would create most of his masterpieces.
Richard Dadd and two of his siblings suffered from mental illness – the public felt compassion for him because of his condition, probably explaining why his paintings were recognized and not rejected.
VINCENT VAN GOGH(1853-1890)
His letters to his brother Theo (published in 1937) brought to light his psychoemotional turmoil, expressed in his own words and not anymore guessed through his paintings. Vincent Van Gogh still fascinates nowadays as much for his post-impressionism compositions than how they were influenced by his mental illness. Unsuccessful and poor during his living, Vincent Van Gogh and his 2,100 artworks encountered an international posthumous success to the point of considering him as one of the Western history of art’s most influential figures.
Vincent Van Gogh lived a troubled life rhythmed by episodes of derangement, constant depression, bipolar disorder and hallucinations. Seeking love without ever obtaining it durably, he maintained a close and destructive relationship with absinthe, to which his fascination with the vibrant yellow pigment in his painting was at a time wrongly attributed.
As a matter of fact, his painting “The Starry Night” was the result of the overmedication with digitalis – a treatment given by the physician Paul-Ferdinand Gachet to treat his epilepsy. It has been demonstrated that people receiving large doses of digitalis have tendencies to see the world with a yellow-green spots surrounded by coronas.
Vincent Van Gogh, unlike other artists, was terrified with madness – he never saw it as an opportunity to feed his imagination but as impediment to his inspiration, stopping him regularly from painting.
His iconic “Self-portrait with a Bandaged Ear” (1889) was another proof of his mental extreme condition – he had not cut only his earlobe, but slice-off his entire left ear with a razor. This was officialized in the writings of Doctor Felix Rey who treated his wound at the time. Vincent Van Gogh had self-inflicted mutilation following a quarrel with Paul Gauguin – after severing his left ear, he bandaged the wound, wrapped the ear in paper to deliver it at a brothel he used to frequent with Paul Gauguin. Vincent Van Gogh was found unconscious by the police the next morning without any recollection of what had happened. Paul Gauguin and him had been staying together for months in Arles, drinking and painting – Vincent Van Gogh admired Paul Gauguin and was scared he would desert him, hoping to develop a long-term collaboration. Though following days of heavy rain, their relationship worsened, and Paul Gauguin decided to fly away from the Yellow House, causing Vincent Van Gogh’s spectacular breakdown.
This episode of self-harm was just an introduction to his suicide a year later. On July 27th 1890, Vincent Van Gogh shot himself in the chest with a broche revolver – deeply injured but without internal organs’ damage, he reached the Auberge Ravoux where he was attended by two doctors. The absence of a surgeon made it impossible to remove the bullet – Vincent Van Gogh was left alone in his room in good spirits, smoking his pipe. On July 29th, his brother Theo kept him company until his last breath, the infection from his wound being fatal. According to Theo, Vincent Van Gogh’ last words were “The sadness will last forever”– the symbol of a life-long suffering.
PAUL GAUGUIN(1848-1903)
Unsatisfied, passionate, tormented, exigent – the list of adjectives to define the complex personality of Paul Gauguin could easily fill an A4 page. As many adjectives would be required to describe his rich contribution to the French painting.
He grew as an important figure of French Impressionism in the early 1880s, alongside Camille Pissarro and Paul Cézanne. Facing financial issues, Paul Gauguin left Denmark in 1885 to paint full time in Paris. Torn between his passion and the absence of his wife and kids, he was unhappy and attempted to end his life. In Paris, Paul Gauguin was disappointed with the evolution of Impression that he believed had become too imitative and deprived of symbolic depth. Influenced by the work of Emile Bernard, his art evolved toward cloisonism.
In 1891, exhausted by the lack of recognition for his work and his persisting financial issues, Paul Gauguin sailed to the tropics to escape from European civilization. He lived in Panama where he contributed to the construction of the canal, then moved to Martinique and Tahiti. In Polynesia, his work found another dimension – a touch of Primitivism and quasi-religious Symbolism. Paul Gauguin was deeply attached to the local people and sided with native peoples against the Catholic Church and the colonial authorities.
It seems Paul Gauguin never managed to reach a lasting happiness – eternally unsatisfied, he was always looking for new ways of painting, new topics to address. Like his friend Vincent Van Gogh, his life was driven by a persisting malaise and torment, and his paintings hit the market after his death, staying in vogue ever since.
PABLO PICASSO(1881-1973)
Blue like the blues – Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period started in 1901 following the suicide of his dear friend Carlos Casagemas on February 17th at L’Hippodrome Café in Paris. Pablo Picasso plunged into a severe depression which would give birth to one of his iconic artistic periods, marked with essentially monochromatic paintings in shade of blue and blue-green.
The evolution of Pablo Picasso’s depression can be observed through the evolution of his themes – starting with the “Death of Casagemas” in 1901 and concluding with “La Vie” in 1903.
The Blue Period did not meet the success at the times it encounters today. Pablo Picasso lost the interest of the public because of the depressed and cheerless dimension of his paintings – in that aspect, it was difficult for art amateurs to purchase his paintings for displaying in their house. He was not only depicting poverty, distress and sadness – he had turned into a combination of all those. His financial situation largely suffered during that time.
In 1903, Pablo Picasso awoke from those obscure times – cleared from his depression, a new era started, known as the Rose Period.
FRANCIS BACON (1909-1992)
Distorted figures as a mean to represent a pessimistic vision on modern humanity’s condition – this is how Francis Bacon expressed his despair toward the dehumanization of men. Even though he was an old-fashioned militant atheist, he believed that the disappearance of God in people’ life dispossessed them of any durable paradise. True master of expressionism, Francis Bacon shocked with his depictions of distorted, broken or even mutilated faces and figures – he aimed to demonstrate the cruelty men tend to cause to one another, their sufferings.
Francis Bacon’s disturbing, revolting and unpleasant compositions do not reveal only his vision but also his depressive tendency. Not only was he depressed about the man’s future, he was about his own life, driven by a tormented childhood. Abused as a child, Francis Bacon had to face the discrimination against gay people when his dad kicked him out of the house for having worn his mother’s clothes. Homosexuality was still a vector of rejection at the time and unauthorized in most modern societies – and clearly nourished his social and personal malaise – though loving should never be considered as a crime.
Francis Bacon was a lifelong alcoholic, causing his death from liver sclerosis in 1992 – a symptom of his self-destructive tendencies. It seemed he was seeking misfortunes in his intimate life, maybe a way to keep finding the inspiration to paint. In 1952, he embarked on a long and toxic love affair with Peter Lacy, a former war pilot known for his sadistic and explosive personality combined with alcoholism. Francis Bacon was emotionally terrorized by his lover and suffered from various acts of violence, being found beaten up in the streets at time. Though, rather than run away, he seemed to be seeking sufferings.
In the 1960s, Francis Bacon was paid £10 per week to drink at the Colony Room in London. A perfect way to monetize his addiction. Among his drinking buddies could be found a certain Lucian Freud. Around the same period, he started a new love affair with George Dyer who, sadly, died from an overdose in their hotel in Paris. A new tragedy that would haunt Francis Bacon until his last day.
MIKHAÏL VROUBEL(1856-1910)
Who knew that an opera could impact so much one’s life?! Though Mikhaïl Vroubel is the living example. While in Kiev, he attended Anton Rubenstein’s opera “The Demon” (1871) which urged him to create his own. Mikhaïl Vroubel’s Demon series was born. He nourished the evolution of his demons with numerous literary sources, among which Mikhaïl Lermontov’s poem “The Demon” (1829-39).
Gradually, he identified with the Demon, using his personification to express his doubts and sufferings. Those personal feelings were mainly driven by his laborious quest of acknowledgement – the mainstream art accusing him of morbidity and savageness. Hurt by his lack of recognition, Mikhaïl Vroubel attributed it to God punishing him for his sinful life. The “Demon Downcast”, painted in 1901, has an autobiographic significance – showing a broken but fearless, an angry but proud figure. The creation of this painting coincides with the worsening of his mental condition; suffering from insomnia and getting more agitated day after day. He could not accept the failure of his “Demon Downcast” exhibition in Moscow in 1902. His painting got moved to St Petersburgh and he kept correcting it endlessly to the point of damaging it. Because of his excessive behavior, Mikhaïl Vroubel was sent by his relatives to consult the renowned psychiatrist Vladimir Bekheterev who diagnosed him with syphilis. His condition keeps degenerating – having binges, sinking into alcoholism, wasting his money – he showed violent behaviors, breaking anything without any reason. In April 1902, Mikhaïl Vroubel was hospitalized at the Fiodor Savaï-Moguilevitch clinic where he got diagnosed with profound mental troubles. The following months, his state kept worsening, making it impossible for his relatives to approach him and necessary for the nurses to watch him constantly.
Rare were his moments of lucidity, during his stay his drawings represented children pornography, his megalomania was not deflating, and he kept tearing his clothes into little pieces. Eventually over the following months his state got a bit better and got moved to the University of Moscow’ clinic under the care of Doctor Vladimir Serbsky who certified his syphilis. His medication managed to control his behavior and make it predictable. Though Mikhaïl Vroubel was not getting anymore interested in art and appeared as an obscure man whose physical and mental health was gradually degrading.
In 1903, he was finally released from his hospital – weakened, he tried unsuccessfully to return to painting. His amelioration unfortunately did not last with the tragic death of his 2 years-old son on May 3rd – he plunged even deeper in a severe depression and asked to be sent back to a medical institution, scared of hurting those around him. In Riga, the Doctor Tilling took care of him with a different approach. Mikhaïl Vroubel was having hallucinations but Doctor Tilling was convinced that his main suffering was one of a melancholic artist and therefore attempted to orientate him back toward painting.
A miracle occurred in 1904 while being at the Fiodor Ousoltsev clinic – diagnosed with bipolarity and neurosyphilis, there was very little hope he would get healed. The methods applied by the Doctor Ousoltsev and the proximity of his relatives cured him – against all odds, Mikhaïl Vroubel met a nearly total recovery and went back to his passion; painting. Freed from the Demon and benefiting from the increasing interest toward symbolism and impressionism, his creations finally attracted the attention of the critic and the audience. Most of his compositions at the time represented his wife in a various scenes and contexts.
In 1905, Mikhaïl Vroubel was stroke again by psychosis and returned to the clinic – his disease degenerated, taking slowly from him his senses and physical abilities until his death.
Regarded as the greatest Russian Symbolist painter, Mikhaïl Vroubel’s compositions alternated moments of darkness and distortion with moments of lucidity and sensibility – taking overtime a growing mystical significance. The success he had been seeking all along his life found its apogee at the end of his life and even more after his death.
CLAUDE MONET(1840-1926)
The poetry of his paintings hid a darker side of Claude Monet, the iconic French impressionist artist. While married to Camille Doncieux and father of the rencently born Jean, Claude Monet tried to commit suicide in 1868 by jumping in the River Seine to drown. Exhausted with the lack of recognition, frustrated by the Académie’s rejection and struggling to support himself and his family financially – Claude Monet fell into depression, filled with despair.
Having survived from his attempt, Claude Monet created a group known as The Anonymous Society joined by other frustrated artists among which Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas and Paul Cézanne. Following their exhibition in 1874, a critic referred to Claude Monet’s paintings as “Impressionism” to define their unfinished impression. The Impressionist style was born – its vivid colors and simultaneous contrast, its short and thick strokes of paint, its play of natural light and en plein air compositions reached popular recognition and appeared as a deep but succesful rupture with the Académie.
Claude Monet was known to be a highly sensible man, haunted by his eternal dissatisfaction and anguish. It was not rare for him to destroy his canvas. His nights were disturbed by persistent nightmares nourished by his fear of failure. Passionate and determined to succeed, Claude Monet was not scare of taking risks to paint – whether in the snow during an extremely cold winter or on the edge of a cliff.
His wife, Camille Doncieux, was his muse and inspired him until her death from tuberculosis in 1876 – following this tragic episode, he moved to Giverny with Alice Hoschedé, a married woman he had been maintaining a love affair with.
Wealthy and well-respected, Claude Monet found peace and inspiration in Giverny – at least until 1911 and the death of Alice from leukemia. As he wrote to his stepdaughter Germaine, “the painter was dead and what remained was an inconsolable husband” – his grief was followed by the loss of his eyesight a year later, plunging him in a deeper gloominess. The death of his first son, Jean, in 1914 brought more sorrow and sufferings in his life – he symbolized his years of struggles and love with Camille Doncieux.
Claude Monet had the chance to be surrounded with amazing friends who never let him down – among which Georges Clemenceau who visited him in Giverny in 1914, attempting to encourage him back to painting despite his health issues. During this visit he discovered Claude Monet’s first paintings of the water lily pond from 1897 and convinced him to get back to painting those. The famous Water Lilies series revived Claude Monet’s creativity and will to paint and rhythmed from that day to the last in 1926.
FRIDA KAHLO (1907-1954)
Frida Kahlo or the story of an incredibly strong woman who overcame both physical and mental sufferings. Starting from the age of 6 when she was diagnosed with polio, causing her to grow with a leg thinner than the other and the scorns of other children. Of this insecurity she made a strength and developed her image considering her physical difference, encouraged by her father to free her creativity without censorship. Frida Kahlo turned into a maverick and independent woman, blending both masculine and feminine energy – she dressed in colorful garments and elaborate accessories, did not shave her armpits and kept a unibrow as well as a mustache.
On September 17th 1925, she was involved in a devastating accident that caused multiple severe injuries, which would impact her behavior for the rest of her life – suffering from numerous fractures involving her spinal column, pelvis, uterus, ribs and extremities. Frida Kahlo suffered from post-traumatic disorder, developing a disruptive and unpredictable personality. She painted many self-portraits (55 in total) in which she dramatically represents her physical and emotional pain, her sorrow and deep depression. The iron rod that had pierced her uterus in the accident took away her ability to bear children – determined to become a mother, she tried several times but each time her pregnancy had to be terminated, causing her a lot of grief.
Frida Kahlo was also highly impacted by her relationship with Mexico’s most celebrated muralist, Diego Rivera. Madly in love with him, they lived a passionate and stormy relationship during which she found him sleeping with her sister – hurt by their successive fight, his relentless infidelities thus the difficulty to trust him, she attempted several times to end her life.
“There have been two great accidents in my life. One was the trolley, and the other was Diego. Diego was by far the worst”
Through her paintings, she enjoyed defying death, her greatest rival – through her lifestyle she was defying her pain – living with passion without barriers. She endured 35 operations throughout her life and got her right leg amputated. Frida Kahlo was an authentic and courageous woman who fought her vulnerability without resting – drinking tequila straight from the bottle, telling dirty jokes at parties, smoking like a chimney. She was as entertaining and lovable as broken and uncatchable.
“I tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned how to swim, and now I am overwhelmed by this decent and good feeling”
The story of Frida Kahlo is the one of a strong woman who battled her pain and depression all along her life, nourished by her will to paint – painting being the essence of her existence.
KYRA “KIKI” SHOULDICE
You might not know her, though surely you will hear from this emerging Canadian artist working essentially with acrylics.
Diagnosed with clinical depression in 2015, Kiki Shouldice found light through art therapy – the usual medical process having produced no satisfactory results. Employing mainly impasto techniques, her abstract expressionist paintings find their essence in her ongoing battle with depression. Art being not only a way to externalize emotions, but also a powerful media to raise awareness and destigmatize mental illnesses.
Kiki Shouldice’s paintings have a powerful attractive depth which lines guide the audience among their emotions. The contrast between the dark moving shapes and the stable white background conveys an insight into our mental journey and own way of interpreting our feelings.
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MIKHAÏL VROUBEL (1856-1910)
Who knew that an opera could impact so much one’s life?! Though Mikhaïl Vroubel is the living example. While in Kiev, he attended Anton Rubenstein’s opera “The Demon” (1871) which urged him to create his own. Mikhaïl Vroubel’s Demon series was born. He nourished the evolution of his demons with numerous literary sources, among which Mikhaïl Lermontov’s poem “The Demon” (1829-39).
Gradually, he identified with the Demon, using his personification to express his doubts and sufferings. Those personal feelings were mainly driven by his laborious quest of acknowledgement – the mainstream art accusing him of morbidity and savageness. Hurt by his lack of recognition, Mikhaïl Vroubel attributed it to God punishing him for his sinful life. The “Demon Downcast”, painted in 1901, has an autobiographic significance – showing a broken but fearless, an angry but proud figure. The creation of this painting coincides with the worsening of his mental condition; suffering from insomnia and getting more agitated day after day. He could not accept the failure of his “Demon Downcast” exhibition in Moscow in 1902. His painting got moved to St Petersburgh and he kept correcting it endlessly to the point of damaging it. Because of his excessive behavior, Mikhaïl Vroubel was sent by his relatives to consult the renowned psychiatrist Vladimir Bekheterev who diagnosed him with syphilis. His condition keeps degenerating – having binges, sinking into alcoholism, wasting his money – he showed violent behaviors, breaking anything without any reason. In April 1902, Mikhaïl Vroubel was hospitalized at the Fiodor Savaï-Moguilevitch clinic where he got diagnosed with profound mental troubles. The following months, his state kept worsening, making it impossible for his relatives to approach him and necessary for the nurses to watch him constantly.
Rare were his moments of lucidity, during his stay his drawings represented children pornography, his megalomania was not deflating, and he kept tearing his clothes into little pieces. Eventually over the following months his state got a bit better and got moved to the University of Moscow’ clinic under the care of Doctor Vladimir Serbsky who certified his syphilis. His medication managed to control his behavior and make it predictable. Though Mikhaïl Vroubel was not getting anymore interested in art and appeared as an obscure man whose physical and mental health was gradually degrading.
In 1903, he was finally released from his hospital – weakened, he tried unsuccessfully to return to painting. His amelioration unfortunately did not last with the tragic death of his 2 years-old son on May 3rd – he plunged even deeper in a severe depression and asked to be sent back to a medical institution, scared of hurting those around him. In Riga, the Doctor Tilling took care of him with a different approach. Mikhaïl Vroubel was having hallucinations but Doctor Tilling was convinced that his main suffering was one of a melancholic artist and therefore attempted to orientate him back toward painting.
A miracle occurred in 1904 while being at the Fiodor Ousoltsev clinic – diagnosed with bipolarity and neurosyphilis, there was very little hope he would get healed. The methods applied by the Doctor Ousoltsev and the proximity of his relatives cured him – against all odds, Mikhaïl Vroubel met a nearly total recovery and went back to his passion; painting. Freed from the Demon and benefiting from the increasing interest toward symbolism and impressionism, his creations finally attracted the attention of the critic and the audience. Most of his compositions at the time represented his wife in a various scenes and contexts.
In 1905, Mikhaïl Vroubel was stroke again by psychosis and returned to the clinic – his disease degenerated, taking slowly from him his senses and physical abilities until his death.
Regarded as the greatest Russian Symbolist painter, Mikhaïl Vroubel’s compositions alternated moments of darkness and distortion with moments of lucidity and sensibility – taking overtime a growing mystical significance. The success he had been seeking all along his life found its apogee at the end of his life and even more after his death.
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Lobotex‘ new exhibition INSOLITO opened in May 2022 at A7MA Gallery in Sao Paulo, where the artist redirects us to what is unusual and abnormal through his paintings and sculptures. Luís Alexandre Lobot‘s new exhibition redirects us to that which is unusual. When we see a monolith on the horizon or a wooden bench taken from its usual …
Troubled Artists or the Light within the Obscurity
The history of painting would not be so rich without the contribution of troubled artists – influenced or inspired whether by their state of depression, whether by more intense psychic conditions.
We will cover a selection of artists whose creativity and masterpieces have been nourished by their mental health and syndromes. Take a moment to observe and feel their creations – their depth, sensibility and emotional distress.
FRANCISCO GOYA (1746-1828)
Last of the Old Masters and first of the moderns, Francisco Goya remains the most important Spanish artist of his era.
In late 1792, an undiagnosed mysterious illness left him deaf with dizziness and headaches. This would change the course of his life toward a darker path. His physical condition started turning into mental syndromes when Napoleon Bonaparte’s army invaded Spain for the start of the Peninsular War (1808-1814). Francisco Goya, tending toward isolation and depression, suffered from delirium and hallucinations – probably materialized by his painting “Saturn Devouring his Son” (1819-1823), one of his 14 Black Paintings directly painted onto his house walls.
Francisco Goya grew old as an anxious, lonely and fearful man whose paintings showed evidence of a passionate instability, a fascination for depicting the gravity of human melancholy and sufferings. His paintings demonstrate a broken utopia, the deception toward a brutal and barbarous mankind – his emotions being emphasized by the loss of his senses resulting in a fearful state of mind.
GEORGIA O’KEEFFE (1887-1986)
Pioneer of the struggle for women’s recognition in the American art establishment, Georgia O’Keeffe grew to become the first female American modernist and one of the most important figures of the 20th century. Not only on canvas, she sought independence all through her life – using style to set herself apart. Her leitmotiv reposed on wanting to be more than was expected of women. To dress in black and white was more of a practical choice than a statement – if she had to choose her clothes among colorful garments, she would lose time she could have dedicated to her art. Influenced by Charlotte Perkins Gilman’ book “The Dress of Women”, she embraced a masculine style of dress – a way to oppose herself against the social norms of the time.
More than a successful artist, she had turned into an icon – attracting renowned photographers among which Cecil Beaton, Andy Warhol, Ansel Adams and […] Alfred Stieglitz. If she was the muse of the latter, he was the love of her life. Alfred Stieglitz settled her first major New York City exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum and strongly contributed to her recognition. He produced a series of 350 photographs of her, shaping and strengthening her image in America. Though, Georgia O’Keeffe insisted in conserving her independence; kept her maiden name and travelled frequently alone to New Mexico. Their passionate and romantic marriage eventually ended because of Alfred Stieglitz tendency to cheat on her and defy her trust.
Georgia O’Keeffe’s flowers paintings were often assimilated with sexual connotations, a vision she has always protested. It was purely the fruit of her senses and her will to represent the beauty of flowers – the large scale of her paintings aiming to attract people’s interest. Her art was characterized by the outlines that were defining the regions of her compositions and dividing them in dynamic zones of color. She depicted not only flowers, but also landscapes with a tendency to abstraction, giving a unique identity to the finale results.
Though her work evolved along her personal development which was suddenly interrupted in 1932 when she could not complete the mural at Radio City Music Hall. Struck by an intense depression and devouring anxiety, she stopped her artistic activities for 2 years while resting at the Doctors Hospital in New York City.
Once freed from her depression, she felt reborn – experiencing a whole lot of negative energies such as sadness, despair and fear had taught her to embrace life even further once cured.
MARK ROTHKO (1903-1970)
Leading figure to the New York abstractionist scene, Mark Rothko stood out with his compositions incorporating influences of Greek narratives and nourished by the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche.
Mark Rothko’s life took a tragic turn from his early childhood – after leaving Russia with his family for Portland due to the hostility that had arisen toward Zionist Jews, his father passed away. This sounded the official end of his childhood, being forced to work with his siblings at an early age to survive financially. No time to embrace the naïve and innocent world from his child’ eyes, the real work had knocked brutally at his door.
Naturally his early life was rhythmed by long periods of depression and worsened by a bipolar condition. His outstanding talent was led by his mental state, leading him to vary from one style to another – starting with Expressionism to finish with the “multi-forms” style. The emotional connection between Mark Rothko and his paintings can be felt through his choice of colors, at times vibrant and warm, nay shady and dark or nuanced with both.
Sadly, overtime Mark Rothko went haywire, being overpowered by his deepening will to die. In 1970, dressed in long johns and socks, he severed his right arm’s artery with a razor and joined the stars.
EDVARD MUNCH (1863-1944)
Master of the Expressionist movement, Edvard Munch is remembered for his disturbing compositions filled with despair and anguish.
His art was nourished by his mental breakdown – to which alcoholism contributed largely – and evolved along the symptoms. “The Scream” (1893) and “Anxiety” (1894) were inspired by his hallucinations and agoraphobia. Edvard Munch was conscious of the valuable input of his depression and showed no intention of curing it – his depression established the artist residing in him.
“My fear of life is necessary to me, as is my illness. Without anxiety and illness, I am a ship without a rudder… my sufferings are part of my self and my art. They are indistinguishable from me, and their destruction would destroy my art”.
The context of his life did not help either to improve his state of mind – having lived during both atrocious World Wars and being directly impacted by the second when, in 1937, the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler confiscated his work for his “Degenerate Art” exhibition.
Edvard Munch may have surely not lived happy, though he managed to transform his weakness into an artistic strength that gave him the will to live and create – setting in stone his contribution to the world long and rich history of art.
LOUIS WAIN (1860-1939)
Who guessed that depicting cats could hide deep sufferings?! Louis Wain reached recognition for his feline forms and anthropomorphic representations of cats which he started to create at first to amuse his beloved wife. Unfortunately, soon after their marriage, a cancer took her away from him. It seems to have been the trigger of his woes.
Louis Wain contracted schizophrenia at the age of 57. Because of his symptoms and the difficulty to treat such mental illness at the time, he entered a psychiatric institution, the Napsbury Hospital, where he would stay for the rest of his life.
His smiling, festive and cuddly cats took the shape of psychedelic kittens while at the hospital – his mental condition fracturing the distinction between the real and the psychic. His figures became more geometric and colorful, moving gradually toward more abstraction.
If depression and distress overcontrolled him following his love’s death – his creations were not expressing signs of dispiritedness – only those aware of his ongoing condition could tell they were accompanying the progression of his delusional state.
NICOLAS DE STAËL (1914-1955)
Difficult not to make a parallel between Nicolas de Staël’s life and the one of Mark Rothko – both sharing quite a similar introduction to life and the same conclusion. Indeed, after seeking exile in Poland from the Russian Revolution in 1919, his parents died in 1921. Nicolas de Staël was only 7 years old when he became an orphan – his life being torn apart right from its commencement. A trauma that would follow him like his shadow all along his existence.
Nonetheless, Nicolas de Staël grew to sit among Russia’s most prominent artists of the 20th century’s first half. He redefined the rules of classic landscape painting, developing it into a highly abstract form of art. His creations were characterized by his obsession of colors – maybe a way to seek those he could not find in his heart – and the application of a thick impasto. He nourished his art with the influence of masters such as Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt, George Braque, Henri Matisse and Paul Cézanne. Even though he was attached to the independence of his style, there was evidence of common grounds with the American Abstract Expressionist movement and the French Tachisme. His art was in constant evolution; the dark colors of his first creations gave way to exalted colors in his last years.
Nicolas de Staël was an eternal unsatisfied who created as much as he destroyed. In 15 years he produced more than a thousand paintings and surely threw away as many. He painted with passion and intensity, throwing on canvas his troubled emotions.
His depressive state kept growing over the years, nourished by the trauma of his childhood and the rejection of an audience that would recognize his talent too late. His depression led him to Antibes, in the South of France, to satisfy his need of isolation. This is where on March 16th 1955, Nicolas de Staël chose to end his torments by jumping from his apartment, located on the 11th floor. In a pulsion, a handful of seconds, the artist had given up on living – as he tended to destroy his creations, he chose this time to act on the creator. Some believe he committed suicide following an unsuccessful meeting with an art critic, some believe he could not handle anymore the rejection from Jeanne Mathieu, a woman he was deeply in love with since the summer 1953 – both scenarios showing his intense and passionate fear of emotional and artistic turndown.
RICHARD DADD (1817-1886)
Better not be mislead by the genius of Richard Dadd’s compositions – his Oriental and supernatural scenes and their obsessively miniscule details. If his painting “The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke” (1855-64) inspired a song to the iconic Queen band in the 1970s, his macabre life could have inspired thriller and fiction’ writers.
It all started in July 1843 when accompanying his Patron on a Middle East grand tour – while on a boat over the Nile in Egypt, Richard Dadd’s first psychotic episode happened. Convinced to have been taken hostage by the ancient Egyptian god Osiris, he started acting weirdly, trashing around wildly. It was time for him to go back to his home country to reconnect with his sanity. Though, on the way back, while in Italy, he exposed his wish to seek out and attack the Pope – a plan he finally did not execute. Unfortunately, it just rang the beginning of much darker upcoming events.
When finally back in the United Kingdom, Richard Dadd’s behavior worsened – less approachable, more difficult to have a conversation with, applying unusual diet of only ale and eggs – it did not take long for the concerned Dr. Alexander Sutherland to suggest a visit to an asylum. In vain, Richard’s father categorically refused to see his son in a psychiatric institution, if only he had known what was upcoming!
Since his return, Osiris had been whispering in his ears about his surrounding; convincing him that his father was an imposter – possessed with demons. Richard Dadd believed “black devils” were crawling over his father and his saliva, he had to put an end to it. On August 28th 1843, Richard Dadd’s pre-arranged a meeting with his father on the Cobham local park to kill him – this time thoughts were followed by actions, he stabbed him and slashed his throat. To escape from local authorities, Richard Dadd fled to France where he had the intention to carry on his murdering journey. It did not take long for him to be arrested, after attempting to kill a tourist with a razor with the explanation that the stars had given him the order to do so. He was found with a list of people “who had to die” among which the Emperor of Austria Ferdinand I.
Extradited in the United Kingdom to face the court, Richard Dadd did not go to jail. The recent McNaghten rules had established the difference between a “conscious” murder and a murder influenced by a state of insanity. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, he avoided the death penalty and was committed for the rest of his life into a psychiatric hospital – at first in South London’ Bethlem Hospital and then in Reading’ Broadmon Hospital, where he would create most of his masterpieces.
Richard Dadd and two of his siblings suffered from mental illness – the public felt compassion for him because of his condition, probably explaining why his paintings were recognized and not rejected.
VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)
His letters to his brother Theo (published in 1937) brought to light his psychoemotional turmoil, expressed in his own words and not anymore guessed through his paintings. Vincent Van Gogh still fascinates nowadays as much for his post-impressionism compositions than how they were influenced by his mental illness. Unsuccessful and poor during his living, Vincent Van Gogh and his 2,100 artworks encountered an international posthumous success to the point of considering him as one of the Western history of art’s most influential figures.
Vincent Van Gogh lived a troubled life rhythmed by episodes of derangement, constant depression, bipolar disorder and hallucinations. Seeking love without ever obtaining it durably, he maintained a close and destructive relationship with absinthe, to which his fascination with the vibrant yellow pigment in his painting was at a time wrongly attributed.
As a matter of fact, his painting “The Starry Night” was the result of the overmedication with digitalis – a treatment given by the physician Paul-Ferdinand Gachet to treat his epilepsy. It has been demonstrated that people receiving large doses of digitalis have tendencies to see the world with a yellow-green spots surrounded by coronas.
Vincent Van Gogh, unlike other artists, was terrified with madness – he never saw it as an opportunity to feed his imagination but as impediment to his inspiration, stopping him regularly from painting.
His iconic “Self-portrait with a Bandaged Ear” (1889) was another proof of his mental extreme condition – he had not cut only his earlobe, but slice-off his entire left ear with a razor. This was officialized in the writings of Doctor Felix Rey who treated his wound at the time. Vincent Van Gogh had self-inflicted mutilation following a quarrel with Paul Gauguin – after severing his left ear, he bandaged the wound, wrapped the ear in paper to deliver it at a brothel he used to frequent with Paul Gauguin. Vincent Van Gogh was found unconscious by the police the next morning without any recollection of what had happened. Paul Gauguin and him had been staying together for months in Arles, drinking and painting – Vincent Van Gogh admired Paul Gauguin and was scared he would desert him, hoping to develop a long-term collaboration. Though following days of heavy rain, their relationship worsened, and Paul Gauguin decided to fly away from the Yellow House, causing Vincent Van Gogh’s spectacular breakdown.
This episode of self-harm was just an introduction to his suicide a year later. On July 27th 1890, Vincent Van Gogh shot himself in the chest with a broche revolver – deeply injured but without internal organs’ damage, he reached the Auberge Ravoux where he was attended by two doctors. The absence of a surgeon made it impossible to remove the bullet – Vincent Van Gogh was left alone in his room in good spirits, smoking his pipe. On July 29th, his brother Theo kept him company until his last breath, the infection from his wound being fatal. According to Theo, Vincent Van Gogh’ last words were “The sadness will last forever” – the symbol of a life-long suffering.
PAUL GAUGUIN (1848-1903)
Unsatisfied, passionate, tormented, exigent – the list of adjectives to define the complex personality of Paul Gauguin could easily fill an A4 page. As many adjectives would be required to describe his rich contribution to the French painting.
He grew as an important figure of French Impressionism in the early 1880s, alongside Camille Pissarro and Paul Cézanne. Facing financial issues, Paul Gauguin left Denmark in 1885 to paint full time in Paris. Torn between his passion and the absence of his wife and kids, he was unhappy and attempted to end his life. In Paris, Paul Gauguin was disappointed with the evolution of Impression that he believed had become too imitative and deprived of symbolic depth. Influenced by the work of Emile Bernard, his art evolved toward cloisonism.
In 1891, exhausted by the lack of recognition for his work and his persisting financial issues, Paul Gauguin sailed to the tropics to escape from European civilization. He lived in Panama where he contributed to the construction of the canal, then moved to Martinique and Tahiti. In Polynesia, his work found another dimension – a touch of Primitivism and quasi-religious Symbolism. Paul Gauguin was deeply attached to the local people and sided with native peoples against the Catholic Church and the colonial authorities.
It seems Paul Gauguin never managed to reach a lasting happiness – eternally unsatisfied, he was always looking for new ways of painting, new topics to address. Like his friend Vincent Van Gogh, his life was driven by a persisting malaise and torment, and his paintings hit the market after his death, staying in vogue ever since.
PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973)
Blue like the blues – Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period started in 1901 following the suicide of his dear friend Carlos Casagemas on February 17th at L’Hippodrome Café in Paris. Pablo Picasso plunged into a severe depression which would give birth to one of his iconic artistic periods, marked with essentially monochromatic paintings in shade of blue and blue-green.
The evolution of Pablo Picasso’s depression can be observed through the evolution of his themes – starting with the “Death of Casagemas” in 1901 and concluding with “La Vie” in 1903.
The Blue Period did not meet the success at the times it encounters today. Pablo Picasso lost the interest of the public because of the depressed and cheerless dimension of his paintings – in that aspect, it was difficult for art amateurs to purchase his paintings for displaying in their house. He was not only depicting poverty, distress and sadness – he had turned into a combination of all those. His financial situation largely suffered during that time.
In 1903, Pablo Picasso awoke from those obscure times – cleared from his depression, a new era started, known as the Rose Period.
FRANCIS BACON (1909-1992)
Distorted figures as a mean to represent a pessimistic vision on modern humanity’s condition – this is how Francis Bacon expressed his despair toward the dehumanization of men. Even though he was an old-fashioned militant atheist, he believed that the disappearance of God in people’ life dispossessed them of any durable paradise. True master of expressionism, Francis Bacon shocked with his depictions of distorted, broken or even mutilated faces and figures – he aimed to demonstrate the cruelty men tend to cause to one another, their sufferings.
Francis Bacon’s disturbing, revolting and unpleasant compositions do not reveal only his vision but also his depressive tendency. Not only was he depressed about the man’s future, he was about his own life, driven by a tormented childhood. Abused as a child, Francis Bacon had to face the discrimination against gay people when his dad kicked him out of the house for having worn his mother’s clothes. Homosexuality was still a vector of rejection at the time and unauthorized in most modern societies – and clearly nourished his social and personal malaise – though loving should never be considered as a crime.
Francis Bacon was a lifelong alcoholic, causing his death from liver sclerosis in 1992 – a symptom of his self-destructive tendencies. It seemed he was seeking misfortunes in his intimate life, maybe a way to keep finding the inspiration to paint. In 1952, he embarked on a long and toxic love affair with Peter Lacy, a former war pilot known for his sadistic and explosive personality combined with alcoholism. Francis Bacon was emotionally terrorized by his lover and suffered from various acts of violence, being found beaten up in the streets at time. Though, rather than run away, he seemed to be seeking sufferings.
In the 1960s, Francis Bacon was paid £10 per week to drink at the Colony Room in London. A perfect way to monetize his addiction. Among his drinking buddies could be found a certain Lucian Freud. Around the same period, he started a new love affair with George Dyer who, sadly, died from an overdose in their hotel in Paris. A new tragedy that would haunt Francis Bacon until his last day.
MIKHAÏL VROUBEL (1856-1910)
Who knew that an opera could impact so much one’s life?! Though Mikhaïl Vroubel is the living example. While in Kiev, he attended Anton Rubenstein’s opera “The Demon” (1871) which urged him to create his own. Mikhaïl Vroubel’s Demon series was born. He nourished the evolution of his demons with numerous literary sources, among which Mikhaïl Lermontov’s poem “The Demon” (1829-39).
Gradually, he identified with the Demon, using his personification to express his doubts and sufferings. Those personal feelings were mainly driven by his laborious quest of acknowledgement – the mainstream art accusing him of morbidity and savageness. Hurt by his lack of recognition, Mikhaïl Vroubel attributed it to God punishing him for his sinful life. The “Demon Downcast”, painted in 1901, has an autobiographic significance – showing a broken but fearless, an angry but proud figure. The creation of this painting coincides with the worsening of his mental condition; suffering from insomnia and getting more agitated day after day. He could not accept the failure of his “Demon Downcast” exhibition in Moscow in 1902. His painting got moved to St Petersburgh and he kept correcting it endlessly to the point of damaging it. Because of his excessive behavior, Mikhaïl Vroubel was sent by his relatives to consult the renowned psychiatrist Vladimir Bekheterev who diagnosed him with syphilis. His condition keeps degenerating – having binges, sinking into alcoholism, wasting his money – he showed violent behaviors, breaking anything without any reason. In April 1902, Mikhaïl Vroubel was hospitalized at the Fiodor Savaï-Moguilevitch clinic where he got diagnosed with profound mental troubles. The following months, his state kept worsening, making it impossible for his relatives to approach him and necessary for the nurses to watch him constantly.
Rare were his moments of lucidity, during his stay his drawings represented children pornography, his megalomania was not deflating, and he kept tearing his clothes into little pieces. Eventually over the following months his state got a bit better and got moved to the University of Moscow’ clinic under the care of Doctor Vladimir Serbsky who certified his syphilis. His medication managed to control his behavior and make it predictable. Though Mikhaïl Vroubel was not getting anymore interested in art and appeared as an obscure man whose physical and mental health was gradually degrading.
In 1903, he was finally released from his hospital – weakened, he tried unsuccessfully to return to painting. His amelioration unfortunately did not last with the tragic death of his 2 years-old son on May 3rd – he plunged even deeper in a severe depression and asked to be sent back to a medical institution, scared of hurting those around him. In Riga, the Doctor Tilling took care of him with a different approach. Mikhaïl Vroubel was having hallucinations but Doctor Tilling was convinced that his main suffering was one of a melancholic artist and therefore attempted to orientate him back toward painting.
A miracle occurred in 1904 while being at the Fiodor Ousoltsev clinic – diagnosed with bipolarity and neurosyphilis, there was very little hope he would get healed. The methods applied by the Doctor Ousoltsev and the proximity of his relatives cured him – against all odds, Mikhaïl Vroubel met a nearly total recovery and went back to his passion; painting. Freed from the Demon and benefiting from the increasing interest toward symbolism and impressionism, his creations finally attracted the attention of the critic and the audience. Most of his compositions at the time represented his wife in a various scenes and contexts.
In 1905, Mikhaïl Vroubel was stroke again by psychosis and returned to the clinic – his disease degenerated, taking slowly from him his senses and physical abilities until his death.
Regarded as the greatest Russian Symbolist painter, Mikhaïl Vroubel’s compositions alternated moments of darkness and distortion with moments of lucidity and sensibility – taking overtime a growing mystical significance. The success he had been seeking all along his life found its apogee at the end of his life and even more after his death.
CLAUDE MONET (1840-1926)
The poetry of his paintings hid a darker side of Claude Monet, the iconic French impressionist artist. While married to Camille Doncieux and father of the rencently born Jean, Claude Monet tried to commit suicide in 1868 by jumping in the River Seine to drown. Exhausted with the lack of recognition, frustrated by the Académie’s rejection and struggling to support himself and his family financially – Claude Monet fell into depression, filled with despair.
Having survived from his attempt, Claude Monet created a group known as The Anonymous Society joined by other frustrated artists among which Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas and Paul Cézanne. Following their exhibition in 1874, a critic referred to Claude Monet’s paintings as “Impressionism” to define their unfinished impression. The Impressionist style was born – its vivid colors and simultaneous contrast, its short and thick strokes of paint, its play of natural light and en plein air compositions reached popular recognition and appeared as a deep but succesful rupture with the Académie.
Claude Monet was known to be a highly sensible man, haunted by his eternal dissatisfaction and anguish. It was not rare for him to destroy his canvas. His nights were disturbed by persistent nightmares nourished by his fear of failure. Passionate and determined to succeed, Claude Monet was not scare of taking risks to paint – whether in the snow during an extremely cold winter or on the edge of a cliff.
His wife, Camille Doncieux, was his muse and inspired him until her death from tuberculosis in 1876 – following this tragic episode, he moved to Giverny with Alice Hoschedé, a married woman he had been maintaining a love affair with.
Wealthy and well-respected, Claude Monet found peace and inspiration in Giverny – at least until 1911 and the death of Alice from leukemia. As he wrote to his stepdaughter Germaine, “the painter was dead and what remained was an inconsolable husband” – his grief was followed by the loss of his eyesight a year later, plunging him in a deeper gloominess. The death of his first son, Jean, in 1914 brought more sorrow and sufferings in his life – he symbolized his years of struggles and love with Camille Doncieux.
Claude Monet had the chance to be surrounded with amazing friends who never let him down – among which Georges Clemenceau who visited him in Giverny in 1914, attempting to encourage him back to painting despite his health issues. During this visit he discovered Claude Monet’s first paintings of the water lily pond from 1897 and convinced him to get back to painting those. The famous Water Lilies series revived Claude Monet’s creativity and will to paint and rhythmed from that day to the last in 1926.
FRIDA KAHLO (1907-1954)
Frida Kahlo or the story of an incredibly strong woman who overcame both physical and mental sufferings. Starting from the age of 6 when she was diagnosed with polio, causing her to grow with a leg thinner than the other and the scorns of other children. Of this insecurity she made a strength and developed her image considering her physical difference, encouraged by her father to free her creativity without censorship. Frida Kahlo turned into a maverick and independent woman, blending both masculine and feminine energy – she dressed in colorful garments and elaborate accessories, did not shave her armpits and kept a unibrow as well as a mustache.
On September 17th 1925, she was involved in a devastating accident that caused multiple severe injuries, which would impact her behavior for the rest of her life – suffering from numerous fractures involving her spinal column, pelvis, uterus, ribs and extremities. Frida Kahlo suffered from post-traumatic disorder, developing a disruptive and unpredictable personality. She painted many self-portraits (55 in total) in which she dramatically represents her physical and emotional pain, her sorrow and deep depression. The iron rod that had pierced her uterus in the accident took away her ability to bear children – determined to become a mother, she tried several times but each time her pregnancy had to be terminated, causing her a lot of grief.
Frida Kahlo was also highly impacted by her relationship with Mexico’s most celebrated muralist, Diego Rivera. Madly in love with him, they lived a passionate and stormy relationship during which she found him sleeping with her sister – hurt by their successive fight, his relentless infidelities thus the difficulty to trust him, she attempted several times to end her life.
“There have been two great accidents in my life. One was the trolley, and the other was Diego. Diego was by far the worst”
Through her paintings, she enjoyed defying death, her greatest rival – through her lifestyle she was defying her pain – living with passion without barriers. She endured 35 operations throughout her life and got her right leg amputated. Frida Kahlo was an authentic and courageous woman who fought her vulnerability without resting – drinking tequila straight from the bottle, telling dirty jokes at parties, smoking like a chimney. She was as entertaining and lovable as broken and uncatchable.
“I tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned how to swim, and now I am overwhelmed by this decent and good feeling”
The story of Frida Kahlo is the one of a strong woman who battled her pain and depression all along her life, nourished by her will to paint – painting being the essence of her existence.
KYRA “KIKI” SHOULDICE
You might not know her, though surely you will hear from this emerging Canadian artist working essentially with acrylics.
Diagnosed with clinical depression in 2015, Kiki Shouldice found light through art therapy – the usual medical process having produced no satisfactory results. Employing mainly impasto techniques, her abstract expressionist paintings find their essence in her ongoing battle with depression. Art being not only a way to externalize emotions, but also a powerful media to raise awareness and destigmatize mental illnesses.
Kiki Shouldice’s paintings have a powerful attractive depth which lines guide the audience among their emotions. The contrast between the dark moving shapes and the stable white background conveys an insight into our mental journey and own way of interpreting our feelings.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
MIKHAÏL VROUBEL (1856-1910)
Who knew that an opera could impact so much one’s life?! Though Mikhaïl Vroubel is the living example. While in Kiev, he attended Anton Rubenstein’s opera “The Demon” (1871) which urged him to create his own. Mikhaïl Vroubel’s Demon series was born. He nourished the evolution of his demons with numerous literary sources, among which Mikhaïl Lermontov’s poem “The Demon” (1829-39).
Gradually, he identified with the Demon, using his personification to express his doubts and sufferings. Those personal feelings were mainly driven by his laborious quest of acknowledgement – the mainstream art accusing him of morbidity and savageness. Hurt by his lack of recognition, Mikhaïl Vroubel attributed it to God punishing him for his sinful life. The “Demon Downcast”, painted in 1901, has an autobiographic significance – showing a broken but fearless, an angry but proud figure. The creation of this painting coincides with the worsening of his mental condition; suffering from insomnia and getting more agitated day after day. He could not accept the failure of his “Demon Downcast” exhibition in Moscow in 1902. His painting got moved to St Petersburgh and he kept correcting it endlessly to the point of damaging it. Because of his excessive behavior, Mikhaïl Vroubel was sent by his relatives to consult the renowned psychiatrist Vladimir Bekheterev who diagnosed him with syphilis. His condition keeps degenerating – having binges, sinking into alcoholism, wasting his money – he showed violent behaviors, breaking anything without any reason. In April 1902, Mikhaïl Vroubel was hospitalized at the Fiodor Savaï-Moguilevitch clinic where he got diagnosed with profound mental troubles. The following months, his state kept worsening, making it impossible for his relatives to approach him and necessary for the nurses to watch him constantly.
Rare were his moments of lucidity, during his stay his drawings represented children pornography, his megalomania was not deflating, and he kept tearing his clothes into little pieces. Eventually over the following months his state got a bit better and got moved to the University of Moscow’ clinic under the care of Doctor Vladimir Serbsky who certified his syphilis. His medication managed to control his behavior and make it predictable. Though Mikhaïl Vroubel was not getting anymore interested in art and appeared as an obscure man whose physical and mental health was gradually degrading.
In 1903, he was finally released from his hospital – weakened, he tried unsuccessfully to return to painting. His amelioration unfortunately did not last with the tragic death of his 2 years-old son on May 3rd – he plunged even deeper in a severe depression and asked to be sent back to a medical institution, scared of hurting those around him. In Riga, the Doctor Tilling took care of him with a different approach. Mikhaïl Vroubel was having hallucinations but Doctor Tilling was convinced that his main suffering was one of a melancholic artist and therefore attempted to orientate him back toward painting.
A miracle occurred in 1904 while being at the Fiodor Ousoltsev clinic – diagnosed with bipolarity and neurosyphilis, there was very little hope he would get healed. The methods applied by the Doctor Ousoltsev and the proximity of his relatives cured him – against all odds, Mikhaïl Vroubel met a nearly total recovery and went back to his passion; painting. Freed from the Demon and benefiting from the increasing interest toward symbolism and impressionism, his creations finally attracted the attention of the critic and the audience. Most of his compositions at the time represented his wife in a various scenes and contexts.
In 1905, Mikhaïl Vroubel was stroke again by psychosis and returned to the clinic – his disease degenerated, taking slowly from him his senses and physical abilities until his death.
Regarded as the greatest Russian Symbolist painter, Mikhaïl Vroubel’s compositions alternated moments of darkness and distortion with moments of lucidity and sensibility – taking overtime a growing mystical significance. The success he had been seeking all along his life found its apogee at the end of his life and even more after his death.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
One reply to “Troubled Artists or the Light within the Obscurity”
דירות דיסקרטיות בחיפה לאירוח מושלם
This is the perfect blog for everyone who hopes to understand this topic. You understand so much its almost hard to argue with you (not that I actually would want toÖHaHa). You definitely put a new spin on a topic which has been written about for years. Excellent stuff, just excellent!
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Lobotex‘ new exhibition INSOLITO opened in May 2022 at A7MA Gallery in Sao Paulo, where the artist redirects us to what is unusual and abnormal through his paintings and sculptures. Luís Alexandre Lobot‘s new exhibition redirects us to that which is unusual. When we see a monolith on the horizon or a wooden bench taken from its usual …